Only Terry Gilliam would dream of bringing a touch of Arthurian fantasy to Manhattan, as one-time radio shock-jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), plagued with guilt that he may have inadvertently caused a mass killing, finds redemption through winsomely mad tramp Parry/Henry Sagan (Robin Williams).

Parry is on a quest to find the Holy Grail, but is constantly thwarted by the figure of a mounted, fire-breathing Red Knight, who thunders after him along Amsterdam Avenue – where the direction of traffic was temporarily reversed to give the impression that it’s swanky ‘Fifth Avenue’.

The imposing ‘red castle’, where Parry believes the Grail resides, was the old Squadron A and Eighth Regiment Armory, which is now Hunter College High School, Madison Avenue at East 94th Street on the Upper East Side.

All the interiors, apart from the Chinese restaurant which was a set in New York, were filmed in Los Angeles, where Parry ’s basement hideout is the boiler room of the familiar Park Plaza Hotel, 607 South Park View Street, overlooking MacArthur Park in downtown LA. The veteran location can also be seen – more recognisably – in films such as New York, New York, Chaplin and Barton Fink, among many other productions. The Park Plaza no longer functions as a hotel, but it lives on as an events space.